Associated Fantasy

"Its fine to have ability, but the ability to find ability in others is the true test" -Lou Holtz

AFFL AFFL2022 

2022 Rules Revision Guide

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There were some more substantial revisions to the League Rules for 2022, than expected, including the introduction of a Taxi Squad and Positional Updates (FB and KR).  Both of those sets of rules changes have their own published guides, detailing the new rules at the links above.  When the league was first launched, the plan was to do a scoring rules audit in year 2 – we did that; then to bring in Contracts and a Taxi squad in year 3. I brought in the contract rules, but because they were substantial, I held off on adding the Taxi rules until this season. We are now at the point where no major rules changes are expected for future years, just minor adjustments from here on out, I don’t want anyone getting frustrated thinking that the rules are going to keep piling on from season to season; we’ve reached the final design, and now future rules changes will just be dialing that design in.

All 2022 rules changes (where not self explanatory) will be gone over in this guide, section by section with notes and guidelines.  (Changed Rules appear in green text on the Rules Page)

Section I General

  • No Changes

Section II Format

The genesis of this league was originally just the desire to make a large, 20 team league.  Tying it into the USFL came after, because they coincidentally also had 20 teams (almost), so I thought it would make for a good template to start the league off, but I never intended for it to forever remain entirely a USFL copy.  I view this league as belonging to all of us, and definitely as something long term; from the beginning, I’ve always intended to introduce rules that would allow the league identity to slowly evolve and become more personalized.  These are the rules I’ve put in place:

  • You can now customize your franchises to varying degrees as follows:
  • Relocation
    • This rule went in last season, it allows teams to choose a new city, etc to be based out of
    • A maximum of 1 relocation per franchise per 2 year period
    • And also a maximum of 2 relocations per season on a first come basis
  • “Enhancement”
    • Franchises are now allowed to update their colors slightly and to rearrange the color scheme of their logos………in other words, you don’t like that shade of blue, you want it darker or lighter…OR…..you want your logo colors reversed, etc
    • Franchise must be under continuous ownership for 2 seasons to be eligible
    • Max 2 per season on a first come basis
  • “Update”
    • Franchises are now also allowed to totally change their colors and/or logo
    • The logo must still represent their team name….Example, an Eagles franchise couldn’t replace their Eagle logo with a bear, but they could replace it with a talon, or a feather, or an E, etc
    • Completely new colors can be introduced
    • Teams can change just the colors or just the logo or both
    • Teams must be under continuous ownership for 4 or more years to be eligible (so no team is eligible until next spring)
    • Change must be approved by the Comp Committee
    • Max 2 per season, first come
  • “Complete Rebrand”
    • Franchises can now change everything: team name, colors, logo
    • Teams must be under continuous ownership for 5 or more years to be eligible (so spring 2024 will be the earliest any team is el;igible)
    • Change must be approved by league vote…..multiple teams may attempt in the same year, but only one change will be approved by vote
  • Once you make any of these changes (except for relocation) you can’t make any more changes for 5 seasons, so plan ahead what you want to do and when you want to do it, keeping in mind only limited changes will be approved each year

I think there are probably several teams that would prefer to have a different team name and logo, and also several others that will have grown attached to their USFL inspired name and want to keep it…..and then many other franchises that fall somewhere in between.  I think these rules will facilitate just the right amount of evolution so that our league can both keep a stable identity while also developing its distinct flavor and character

Section III Entry Fees and Payouts

  • All of the rules here are essentially the same as they’ve always been, but I’ve greatly simplified the language
  • Some of the Green Text here is the 2022 payout structure – that gets updated each season by the comp committee –what is currently listed is the UPDATED payout schedule the Comp Comt put together to account for the Bandits’ absence
  • The rest of the green text deals with the New 17 week Total Scoring contest…….btw, deadline for submitting payment for this ($15) is not till week 2, but email me if you’d like to be ‘penciled in’ and I’ll post a list of who plans to participate

Section IV Scoring

The scoring rules for FB and KR have been updated on the Scoring Rules Page

Section V Rosters

Changes to this section (including positional limit changes and the addition of a Full back Position and a Taxi Squad) are outlined in their own guides at those links

Please MAKE SURE you understand the offensive starting line-up rules with the addition of the Full back position

  • Also in the Rosters section, the injured reserve time table has been lowered from 21 days to 18 days

Section VI  Draft

  • The draft is now JUST 7 ROUNDS LONG
  • Teams cannot skip any of their picks unless they have reached the salary cap
  • Position limits and roster size limits will be turned off for the draft
  • Teams can release a drafted player immediately after the draft for NO salary hit
  • The reasoning behind shortening the draft is that it was just too damn long
  • The reasoning behind forcing teams to use their pick follows the rationale of dealing cards and not upsetting the flow of the deal
  • For teams that need more players to fill their roster we will now have a special Draft Waiver Period (see below)

Section VII Keepers

  • No Change

Section VIII Free Agency

Draft Waivers

  • Because the draft now has only 7 rounds and teams may need more players to fill their roster we now have special ‘Draft Waivers’
  • These draft waivers will run at 8am EDT on the morning after the AFFL draft, and will run once every 8 hours for the next 2 days
  • Teams may make one claim in any of these waiver runs
  • Any player dropped in a waiver transaction, will become available in the next waiver run
  • Undrafted Rookie or Veteran players may be acquired via these draft waivers
  • Any players just acquired in the draft may be dropped via draft waivers for $0 in salary obligations

Sunday Free Agency

  • Sunday Free Agency has some major changes
  • Players acquired (in the regular season) through Sunday Free Agency will now be acquired on a TEMPORARY basis (only the one game)
  • Sunday Free Agency now opens at 7am EDT instead of 2am
  • Players acquired in Sunday Free Agency now have a new structure to the Roster Bonus they must be paid for being acquired on Sunday:
    •  it’s now $2.0m or 20% of their salary, whichever is greater
  • Besides their roster bonus, teams will only pay 1/14th of the player’s salary, for one week of the player’s services.
  • Here’s how it works:
    1. Franchise acquires player on Sunday through first come – first serve open waivers (Example player has a $14.0m salary) on Sunday morning before the games
    2. The Franchise will be charged the player’s full salary (in this example, $14.0m) by the MyFantasyLeague system
      • This means franchise MUST have cap space for the acquisition
    3. Franchise can start player for the week (but does not have to)
    4. When the week concludes after the Monday night game, as part of the weekly adjustments:
      1. The franchise will be charged the assessed Roster Bonus (in this example $2.8m) as a dead money hit
      2. The acquired player will be cut from the team and returned to waivers
      3. The MFL system will return 50% of the player’s salary to the franchise (in this example $7m)
      4. The league will return the remaining balance (50% of total salary minus 1/14th of total salary) as a dead money credit (in this example $6m)
      5. End result is that team acquired player (in this example) for $14m, started him for one week, and then had him removed and $10.8m returned to team 
      6. Think of it as putting down a deposit of the player’s full salary, and then getting most of it back at the end of the week
  • It’s a little different for the 3 playoff Sundays
    • On these Sundays, the Roster Bonus is $5m or 25% whichever is higher
    • Full player salary is paid
    • Player remains with team

Salary Cap and Free Agency

  • Rules have been put in place to handle any salary cap over extensions
  • Basically, when you acquire a player where any sort of bonus is involved, there is an adjustment made at the end of the week
  • If you’re close to the cap, this adjustment may make you go over the cap, if this happens, it means the transaction must be retroactively reversed
  • This means any points scored by this player will have to be retroactively removed EVEN IF IT AFFECTS THE OUTCOME OF THE GAME
  • If you find yourself close to the cap, please consult with me before making any pick-ups

Section IX Trades

  • No real changes here
  • Off season trading period was extended to last through most of the offseason
  • The rules for Draft Day Trading have been simplified and streamlined

Section X Salaries and Salary Cap

Rookie Salaries

We’ve made some major changes here that we think everyone will like much better than the old rookie salary rules

  • Rookies acquired during the season through regular waivers or sunday free agency will have a rookie year salary of the  League Minimum ($5.6m for 2022)
  • Rookies acquired through Draft Waivers immediately following the draft will have a rookie year salary of 150% of the league minimum ($8.4m for 2022)
  • Rookies drafted in the 7th round of our draft will have a salary of 200% of the League minimum ($11.2m for 2022)
  • Rookies drafted 6th round – 220% of league minimum ($12.3m for 2022)
  • Rookies drafted 5th round – 240% of league minimum ($13.44m for 2022)
  • Rookies drafted 4th round – 260% of league minimum ($14.56m for 2022)
  • Rookies drafted 3rd round – 280% of league minimum (15.68m for 2022)
  • Rookies drafted 2nd round – 300% of league minimum (16.8m for 2022)
  • Rookies drafted in the first round AFTER pick #5 – 400% of league minimum ($22.4m for 2022)
  • Rookie drafted at #5 overall – 400% of league minimum ($28.0m for 2022)
  • Rookie drafted at #4 overall – 550% of league minimum ($30.8m for 2022)
  • Rookie drafted at #3 overall – 600% of league minimum ($33.6m for 2022)
  • Rookie drafted at #2 overall – 650% of league minimum ($36.4m for 2022)
  • Rookie drafted at #1 overall – 750% of league minimum (42.0m for 2022)

Position Designations

  • These aren’t new rules, I’ve just rewritten them to make them more clear; these rules are governed by the way the MFL system calculates salary

Section XI Schedule

  • Only change here is the change from 13 weeks to 14 that I didn’t remember to put in last year

Section XII Playoffs

  • We have reworked home field advantage for playoff games
  • It’s pretty self explanatory, home field advantage is now based on the difference between seed values…..High Seed value minus Low Seed value = advantage
    • so Seed #8 at Seed #1 (8 minus 1 = 7) would be a 7 point home field advantage for seed #1
    • or Seed #6 at Seed #3 (6 minus 3 = 3) would be a 3 point home field advantage for seed #3
    • (NOTE: the previous rule was a 5 point home field advantage for all home teams)
  • The section on the lower place games is how we’ve been doing it, I’v just put it into the rules now

Section XII Tiebreakers

  • We’ve adjusted the tiebreakers slightly
  • Standings ties where the head to head or common opponent tiebreaker must be used, will now utilize win percentage to be applied as tiebreaker so that ties between more than two teams and/or teams with uneven games can be broken
  • EXAMPLE 1:
    • Two teams tied with 8-6 records; common opponent record applied
    • Team A has played Team C twice and went 1-1….win %=.500
    • Team B has played Team C once and went 1-0….win %=1.0
    • Team B wins tiebreaker
  • EXAMPLE 1B:
    • Same two teams tied with 8-6 records; common opponent record applied
    • Team A 1-1 vs Team C and 1-0 vs Team D; total record 2-1……win %=.666
    • Team B 1-0 vs Team C and 0-1 vs Team D; total record 1-1….win %=.500
    • Team A wins tiebreaker
  • EXAMPLE 2:
    • 3 teams tied with 8-6 records; head to head tiebreaker applied
    • Team A is 1-0 vs Team B; 0-1 vs Team C; record is 1-1 = .500
    • Team B is 0-1 vs Team A, 1-1 vs Team C; record is 1-3 = .333
    • Team C is 1-0 vs Team A, 1-1 vs Team B; record is 2-3 = .666
    • Team C wins tiebreaker
  • EXAMPLE 3:
    • 4 teams tied with 7-7 records; common opponent tiebreaker applied
    • Team A, B, C, and D…..Common Opponents are Teams E, F, G
    • Team A is 1-1 vs E, 1-0, vs F, 0-1 vs G; record is 2-2 = .500
    • Team B is 1-0 vs E, 1-0 vs F, 0-1 vs G, record is 2-1 = .600
    • Team C is 1-1 vs E, 1-0 vs F, 1-0 vs G, record is 3-1 = .750
    • Team D is 0-1 vs E, 2-0 vs F, 2-0 vs G, record is 4-1 = .800

Appendix A: Covid

  • Players designated with covid can now be moved to either the TAXI C spot (3 spots) or to IR (3 spots)……here’s the differences to considering where to move a covid player:
  • Injured Reserve:
    • Player will not count against position limits or total roster size
    • You can put player on IR yourself, anytime you want to
    • Player cannot be removed until 18 days later
    • player can be left on IR indefinitely even after he’s no longer covid
  • Taxi C:
    • Player will not count against position limits or total roster size once he’s on the Taxi
    • Player won’t be placed onto Taxi until the Saturday/Sunday rollover immediately following your request to have him Taxied
      • This means player will still count against your position limits for Wednesday AND Saturday waivers and will only free up a position for  on your roster Sunday Free Agency
    • Player will not be removed from the Taxi until the Monday/Tuesday rollover immediately following the removal of his covid designation or by request on Sunday
      • Meaning he could test positive on Monday, remain on Taxi, test negative and play on a Thursday, but remain unavailable
  • Timing, your player, and your individual roster needs will determine which solution is best for you; you can always email with questions

Appendix B: Transaction Restrictions

  • This rule is simple….we used to have a rule that restricted teams from adding players once they were no longer playoff viable…..
  • We have gotten rid of that rule…..
  • But I can’t find the rule to take it out……
  • So, this Appendix is written to overwrite any such rule
  • Bottom line, all teams can now make add/drops right up until all players lock at the end of week 18